Thanks to Alex for a very kind article on the healingphilosophy.com “The ethical financial advisor”. I just received a link today. It is too bad that ethical and financial advisor have come to seem like oxymorons. I know there are many good-intentioned people out there giving financial advice. The trouble is that the equities sales culture has trained them and signs their commission cheques. Everything they have come to believe and advise comes from that bias. Clients simply can't afford to take financial advice from the financial sales world. There must to be product providers, sellers, and advisors, they are three distinct roles with separate and naturally conflicting agendas. The three just cannot be one.
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Thank you Danielle. I had 80 visits to my site today, 75 of them probably from your article!
Yes, independent advice is needed; we have it on great authority that a man cannot serve two masters… Alex
You are definitely hitting on part of the issue- the advice you receive should not be beholden to one firm's product or sales push. Outside of that, everyone's situation is different, varying from needing debt reduction, to managing a portfolio, to comprehensive wealth management. The key is interviewing several advisors and picking someone who has experience with other people in your exact situation. My company runs a website at http://www.claroconnect.com that matches people to unique financial advisors that specialize in divorce planning, union employees, socially responsible investing and hundreds of other specialties.
sorry, that is not enough. I started out my career being paid by the products I sold my clients. I know full well the pulls of that model. You cannot give the fiduciary, independent advice needed when you are paid according to what you sell them. I realize this upsets 90% of the “investment fiirm” models out there, but the truth is they are a broken model that needs to evolve to serve the best interests of their clients. Independnent advisors need to quit being paid commissions cold turkey. The same applies to “fee accounts” at investment sales firms, where the firm is still paid most off of the products they underwrite rather than the retail clients they advise. D
Due to impending financial exigency, many people are trapped with never-ending cycle of debt and seeking for ways on how to get out of that mess. One of the major reasons why many people are trapped with debt is because of excessive spending; they keep on buying unnecessary things. As early as now, we have to teach ourselves how to live within our means as well as smart money management or financial planning. Financial planning is an essential skill to have. It’s vital to get some good investing tips when you’re young so that you can start financial planning for the future. Investing for young people looks like something that is distant, something that they’ll do once they get older, but the sooner you can start, the better. Experts recommend buying real estate as early as possible so that you can build equity quicker, which is a good idea. The sooner you start your financial planning, the better it will be for you in the long run.
“Experts recommend buying real estate as early as possible so that you can build equity quicker, which is a good idea. The sooner you start your financial planning, the better it will be for you in the long run. ”
Yes, I agree that we should live within our means, have savings and planning ahead as soon as possible.
The hard part, in my opinion is find the right kind of “ethical financial advisor”, who can really help, instead of just full of good intentions.
In recent years, I have met many confident financial planning experts, ready to help anyone. Unfortunately, they are generalists. Very few of these “experts” understand what it really takes, to be the “real” experts in any investment fields, such as real estate, stocks, bonds etc.
Without a real solid grasp on all types of investments, their financial planning in general are based on some superficially good looking formulas with unrealistic assumptions.
My 2 cents: 1. An real experts is not that easy to find.
2. It's even harder to match an “expert” with some one “brand new”, or some one still looking for easy “investing tips”.
H.W.